Romans 4:6-8

Romans 4:6-8

[6] Even as  David  also  describeth  the blessedness  of the man,  unto whom  God  imputeth  righteousness  without  works,  [7] Saying, Blessed  are they whose  iniquities  are forgiven,  and  whose  sins  are covered.  [8] Blessed  is the man  to whom  the Lord  impute  sin. 

What does Romans 4:6-8 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Paul cited another eminent man in Jewish history whose words harmonized with the apostle"s. Whereas Abraham lived before the Mosaic Law, David lived under it. Abraham"s story is in the law section of the Hebrew Bible, and David"s is in the prophets section. Here is the second witness Paul referred to in Romans 3:21. Abraham represents the patriarchal period of Israel"s history and David the monarchy period. As Israel"s greatest king, one would assume that David would have been a strong advocate of the Mosaic Law. He was, but he did not view it as the key to justification.
The passage Paul quoted from David"s writings ( Psalm 32:1-2) does not state directly that David himself received justification by faith, though he did. It stresses that those to whom God "reckons" righteousness (i.e, the justified) are "blessed." Paul was carrying the sense of one passage ( Romans 4:6) over to explain the meaning of another ( Romans 4:7-8). The second passage contained the same word (logizesthai, translated "reckons" or "credits" in Romans 4:6, and translated "taken into account" or "count" in Romans 4:8).
"One of the reasons why Paul quotes these verses is the presence in them of the key word "reckon." The practice of associating verses from the OT on the basis of verbal parallels was a common Jewish exegetical technique." [1]
Psalm 32is one of David"s penitential psalms that he wrote after he had sinned greatly. Paul not only proved that David believed in imputed rather than earned righteousness with this quotation, but he also showed that when a believer sins his sin does not cancel his justification.
"Forgiveness is more than mere remitting of penalty. Even a hard-hearted judge might remit a man"s fine if it were paid by someone else, but forgiveness involves the heart of the forgiver. God"s forgiveness is the going forth of God"s infinite tenderness toward the object of His mercy. It is God folding the sinner, as the returning prodigal was folded, to His bosom. Such a one is blessed indeed!" [2]
". . . it is not the "reckoning" of people"s good works but God"s act in not reckoning their sins against them that constitutes forgiveness." [1]
"God does keep a record of our works, so that He might reward us when Jesus comes; but He is not keeping a record of our sins." [4]
Since God is omniscient, He knows everything that has ever happened. By saying that God forgets our sins, the writers of Scripture meant that He will never bring us into judgment for our sins or condemn us for them (cf. Romans 8:1). The idea of forgetting sins is anthropomorphic: the writer ascribes an action of man (forgetting) to God to help us understand that God behaves as though He forgets our sins.